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Back to school 2010

US President Obama greets schoolchildren following his second annual back-to-school speech at Julia R. Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School in Philadelphia, September 14. Jason Reed/Reuters

Fourth-grader Victoria McBeth steps off the bus to a bath of bubbles as teachers welcome students back to school, Sept. 9, at Maine-Memorial Elementary School in the Town of Maine, N.Y. Rebecca Catlett/Press & Sun-Bulletin/AP

A man rides a motorcycle carrying six children on their way back home from school at Greater Noida in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh September 10. Parivartan Sharma/Reuters

Students attending the first day of school are welcomed by staff and classmates at John Glenn Middle School on Aug. 30, in Indio, Calif. Marilyn Chung/The Desert Sun/AP

First graders attend their first English language lesson at a local school in Tbilisi, Georgia, September 15. Hundreds of native English speakers joined the first day of school as teaching assistants under an ambitious program to have every child aged 5 to 16 speak English. English is now compulsory, and Russian optional. David Mdzinarishvili/Reuters

A child of foreign workers walks at Bialik-Rogozin School during the first day of school in Tel Aviv on Sept. 1. Israel will begin deporting families of illegal migrants in coming weeks, officials say, as an emotional debate rages over foreign workers, whose ballooning numbers some fear could threaten the country's Jewish identity. Ariel Schalit/AP

Students squeeze together in crowded desks at Majengo Primary School in Moshi, Tanzania, July 28. Like many primary school systems in East Africa, Tanzania's is supposed to be free. But in practice, schools have replaced tuition with fees for everything from textbooks to toilets, making education unaffordable to many. Maria Almond/AP/File

A Pakistani volunteer teacher shows a book to children living at a camp for people affected by floods at Tibba Jamal Wala village in Muzaffargarh district, Punjab Province, Pakistan, Sept. 1. Teachers from the Balamory School in nearby Multan travel to different camps every day to teach flood-affected children school subjects and proper hygiene to prevent the spread of disease. Aaron Favila/AP

Pupils attend a ceremony to mark the first day of the new semester at a primary school in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China September 1. Jeff Xu/Reuters

Schoolchildren walk to enter a class in a primary school in Marseille, September 2, on the start of the new school year in France. Jean-Paul Pelissier/Reuters

Britain's general elections used to be straightforward: a predominantly two-horse race between Labour or Conservative governments, left vs. right, red against blue. But as electioneering gets under way for May 7 polls, it's clear the vote has implications for British politics that extend well beyond whoever comes out on top.